


Fumbling

by LostGirl



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Get Together, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-02-20
Updated: 2005-02-20
Packaged: 2018-06-01 17:28:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6529351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostGirl/pseuds/LostGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xander comes back from Africa.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fumbling

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Fumbling  
>  Author: Lostgirl  
>  Pairing: Giles/Xander  
>  Rating: PG  
>  Summary: Xander comes back from Africa.  
>  Spoilers: Set post 'Chosen'.  
>  Disclaimer: BtVS belongs to Joss Whedon and various coporate entites. I am neither.
> 
> Big, huge thanks to [](http://malnpudl.livejournal.com/profile)[**malnpudl**](http://malnpudl.livejournal.com/) for the wonderful beta!
> 
> For the Giles Birthday Ficathon([master list here](http://www.livejournal.com/users/phendog/129170.html?style=mine#cutid1)), which was arranged for us by the amazing [](http://phendog.livejournal.com/profile)[**phendog**](http://phendog.livejournal.com/). I wrote for [](http://cala-jane.livejournal.com/profile)[**cala_jane**](http://cala-jane.livejournal.com/), who wanted tea, innuendo, and smirking. Er, there's tea? And a little innuendo . . . ::looks sheepish and hopes you like it anyway::

Giles fidgets with the flatware.  His eyes dart to the door when the bell hanging above it chimes.  Not Xander.  Though Giles _is_ more than ten minutes early.

Xander's been in Africa for over a year, but it isn't as if they haven't been in contact.  They've exchanged letters, Xander calls whenever he can find the time and focus.  They talk more since they've been on separate continents, more than they ever did when they'd both lived in Sunnydale.

After further consideration, Giles acknowledges that it's the tone of the last few letters that has him . . . unsettled.  It would be only too easy to let himself believe--

The bell jingles.  Giles looks up to see Xander entering the small restaurant and he waits for Xander to see him, his eyes sliding over the younger man.  He takes a moment to note the more defined muscle tone, the easy confidence in Xander's stance; takes another moment to forcibly push those thoughts from his mind.

Xander spots him; beaming as he heads to the table.  Giles stands, unable to keep from grinning in return as he reaches to clasp Xander's strong hand in both of his.

"Giles!"  Xander pulls him into a hug and, stunned, Giles finds himself returning the embrace without a thought.

"Xander.  You look--"  _Damn._   He hadn't intended to begin that sentence.  It ends with things that say too much.  He flails for a way to finish, but Xander beats him to it.

"No more than you."  Xander ducks his head in a familiar gesture, one that speaks of the old Xander, the boy he'd first met so many years ago.  It's a self-conscious thing and yet it highlights the underlying confidence in Xander's movements.

They both sit.  Xander peers around at the place before his eyes come to rest on Giles.

"How was your flight?"  The question rises mechanically to Giles' lips.  His hands are fondling the flatware again.

"Oh, fine.  It was a flight.  How's everything here?  Still running yourself ragged?"  The admonishing tone to Xander's voice makes Giles snort, and he begins to relax into the familiarity of the conversation.

"Someone has to make certain things run smoothly--"

"Yeah, yeah.  I heard that speech the last time we talked."  Xander mock-glares and Giles admits to himself that the eye patch is jarring, but not nearly so much as he'd feared.  He always pictures Xander as he was, due simply to familiarity.  "Andrew says you won't let him do anything and Buffy says that her visit was probably the last time you actually ate somewhere that wasn't in the Council's buildings."

"And I suppose she made you promise to get me out of the office?" he asks, sighing in his most put upon tone.  "It isn't as if I sleep there."  Giles thinks for a heartbeat and is forced to qualify, "Er, not-not very often."

Xander laughs and the sound washes over Giles.  He finds himself feeling more at ease just for hearing it.

"Then I'll just have to make it my mission to get you out more."  Xander's sly glance is beyond Giles' ability to decipher and still he rises to the bait.

"And just how do you intend to do that?  Will you throw me over your shoulder and drag me away kicking and screaming?"  The image makes Giles chuckle.

"If that's what it takes," Xander replies, so close to serious there's but a molecule separating the words from matter-of-fact.  "Don't think I won't, just because you're all Head Watcher Guy.  I knew you when you were just an unemployed librarian."  Xander eyes him sternly, but his expression resolves into something more thoughtful quickly enough.  "Not that you were actually ever _just_ an unemployed librarian."

Giles smiles, thrown by the warmth on Xander's face, in his voice.  Their waiter's arrival saves him from having to reply.  Once their orders are taken and the waiter has gone, Giles feels a good deal more composed.

"How did it go with Genevieve?  You said she was warming to the idea of being a slayer; did she, uh, did she return with you?"

Xander doesn't answer, instead studying him and then slowly shaking his head.

"This is worse than I thought."  Putting his cup aside with exaggerated care, Xander meets Giles' gaze.

Giles feels the smile drift from his face, confused and worrying that something has shown through his careful façade.

"Giles, this is me here.  We don't have to talk about work.  We have friends to talk about; London to talk about; old times to talk about.  Certain upcoming birthday parties to talk about?"

Giles almost sighs his relief aloud.  He gives Xander a contrite smile and sets his own teacup on its saucer, fingers rubbing over the flatware as if it's become his touchstone.    "All right, then you begin the topic.  If you don't want to discuss work, you'll have to take the lead."

"I was afraid of that."  Xander grins, their eyes meet, his expression changes.  "I have a surprise.  Uh, for-for your birthday.  I want, um, I was hoping we could . . . could go back to your apartment, before the party tonight?"

Giles blinks, confused by the nervous tone of Xander's voice.  "My flat?  Uh, of course.  What _sort_ of surprise?"  He can feel his eyebrows furrow as he watches a blush form on Xander's cheeks.

"Okay.  I'll . . . I'll give you a hint.  'Cause, I think . . . I think I know what you want, but I might have _read_ things the wrong way, so . . . if you don't want to, uh, unwrap it, that's . . . that's okay.  More than okay.  I mean wouldn't want--"

"Xander?"

"Right.  Uh, your hint."  Xander nods, too fast, too much.  His nervousness brings Giles' worry swirling back and sweeps away the barrier of distance Giles had erected between them.  Xander licks his lips and Giles' eyes follow the younger man's tongue.  "Right now?  Your surprise is . . . is here and it's wrapped in black and, uh, that weird khaki color."

Giles freezes, assuming a stillness most often seen in vampires and those that don't actually need to breathe.  His eyes flick down to Xander's black dress shirt, then further down to the hint of khaki slacks that show around the table's edge.  His breath returns in a quiet gasp.  His breathing speeds, heart picking up its pace until his chest throbs with the beat.  Xander couldn't possibly mean . . . could he?

Slowly, after tracing the lines of Xander's body, his eyes settle on the younger man's face and the anxiety written clearly there.

"So, uh . . . uh, what-what do you think?"  Xander sucks his lips between his teeth, newly gained musculature tense, waiting, and Giles finds it hard to speak for a long moment.

"I think . . ." he says slowly, searching Xander's face until he finds what he's looking for.  "I think I want to go home to unwrap my surprise."


End file.
